In my last article I promised there would be no Rabbits of any kind. I’m a man of my word (mostly): it’s not; it’s a VW Pickup, or VW Caddy as it’s known in the rest of the world. This particular VW Pickup was a diesel once and almost a turbo diesel another time. And if you like bullet holes in your cars ala- Travelall this one might suit you as well.

I don’t remember how we obtained this pickup, or from where. In fact my earliest memory of it was of my friend Peter owning it and putting new struts and shocks on it for him. It was another baby blue VW ( I don’t know where he kept finding them), I do so hate that color, perhaps even more than chartreuse or mid-eighties Buick metallic blue. But more importantly it had a Gemtop canopy and it was a diesel – five speed. For most of it’s existence with us it was owned by Peter. And of course it had an interesting life with him.

Because it was a Rabbit at heart it had electrical problems. Eventually it failed to start reliably and Peter called up to get me to tow it home for him. I was driving my 1973 Dodge M886 5/4 ton search and rescue truck. So I hooked a tow strap on and prepared for a fifteen mile drive through the countryside to my house. But we got about a mile before things went horribly wrong.

I stopped at a stop sign and turned right (mind you, I could not actually see the pickup through the back doors, or even feel it back there). As I started to straighten out I looked in my right mirror to see the pickup just keep turning. It turned right into the ditch, I thought that he must have straightened it out by then and so I kept pulling him. It came out of the ditch but now he was heading straight for a mail box. By this time I could see that the front wheels were still turned right. I figured something must be wrong with the steering. So with the mailbox coming up fast I turned left (as there were no cars coming) and gave it the gas. The pickup must have missed the mailbox by an inch and then it tugged back toward the ditch, but by this time Peter was on the brakes and I was keeping tension on the strap to keep it out of the ditch.

I got off the road and went over to Peter. I asked him what the hell the problem was. He said, “I am never going to live this one down”. What one? I asked. Well, remember how you said to put the key in and to turn it on? Yeah, I said. “Well I didn’t do that part”. What do you mean? I asked. To which Peter replied, “The keys are in my pocket”.

Amazingly the Pickup was not even scratched in the incident and we made it back safely after inserting the keys in the ignition and unlocking the column. The problem was easily fixed and the pickup lived with Peter until he sold it to our friend Bill. Bill was considerably bigger than Peter and it was most entertaining watching him get in and out of the little VW. But he needed a commuter car for his new job and the Pickup got great fuel mileage. Now I should note that Bill had destroyed every car he had owned to date, either by crashing it or by “repairing” it. And his losing streak was not broken with the purchase of the Pickup.

After several months Bill showed up at my house with a sick Pickup. I diagnosed it as a blown head gasket. At the time I was working nights, so repairing it was all on Bill; I could only give him some instruction before heading off to bed most of the time. Well, after making sure the head was not warped or cracked it came time to put it all back together. I had given him detailed instructions about finding top-dead-center and lining things up right before he removed the head. Apparently those words were wasted breath.

Bill’s attempts to start the car awoke me just long enough to know that he had done it all wrong. I fell back to sleep with the distant sound of valves hitting pistons. Apparently Bill kept trying to start it until it would not try anymore.

I happened to have a wrecked Volkswagen Quantum with a perfectly good turbo diesel engine sitting under the trees out back. So I bought the broken Rabbit pickup from Bill. But of course as Robert Burns famously wrote; “the best laid schemes of mice and men go often askew”. So it never did receive the turbo but it did get the turbo diesel engine.

Once the VW Pickup was back on the road it really struck me just how small it was. I am 6’3″ inches tall and not so thin. I had changed jobs and was working as an executive secretary to a church senior pastor at the time (actually doing some stuff I went to school for!). At the time we had a hefty young intern from the east coast who was even more fond of eating than I. So given the exceptional fuel mileage of the Rabbit (offset by my use of off-road-only fuel, don’t tell) we decided to drive up to Portland to find some good pastries. Once we got there however, we were wanting real food. So not knowing of any buffets (we liked buffets) we turned around and drove to the casino in Grande Ronde (between the coast and Salem). Finally having stuffed ourselves we headed back. But because of our immense size, now increased by our consumption of immense portions of food, I cannot say that our trip was pleasant. It took all the next day for my cramped gas pedal foot to recover.

Eventually Peter bought the car back from me and drove it to California for his family reunion. A day or so after Peter left I got a phone call from him. He said that the car had a big oil leak, that he didn’t have any oil, and that he had “nursed” it into a gas station. I of course explained to him that you can’t “nurse” a car with no oil. He found out it was the oil filter that was leaking at the seal. So he replaced it and got it back home. But it kept having the same problem. New oil filter, not over-tightened, eventually the seal would give out and oil would spray forth. I found out in an old service bulletin that it was actually caused by a recalled part. Apparently some of the oil filter bosses were manufactured slightly warped. But by that time the engine was smoking and loud so we decided to sell the car.

But as I was cleaning it up to sell and removing Peter’s custom license plates I noticed something. Sometime between Bill and Peter owning it, a bullet hole had appeared in the front license plate! Since both of them were avid shooters it was hard to pin it on either of them. However, Bill did once accidentally shoot a box of .22 ammo in his trailer home causing a chain reaction that left a few holes in the walls. And Peter was disallowed from hunting with at least two different groups for certain gaffes. But neither of them claimed to know anything about it. I still have the holy license plate today and the original injector pump laying around somewhere. And by the way, this really was the last Rabbit/Golf-family vehicle I ever bought.

A young enthusiastic guy bought it with the turbo charger and parts, and intents on doing all the things we had never got around to doing with it. Well, best of luck to him, I thought, he’ll need it.

There is at least one of these lurking in these parts as I have seen it as recently a couple of months ago. In silver. When these were new, however, the main color seemed to be blue, at least in the north county area of St. Louis where I lived at the time.

I thought the vehicle was a great idea then, now more so, as one does not need a full-size or even a small(!) pickup for 99% of the time. For the other 1%, pay 20 bucks and use the Home Depot/Lowes/Menards one available.

Would I drive one? I don’t know, for as long as I have this stupid 100-mile commute, I need fuel economy AND comfort. Remember, I’m (unfortunately) not a young man anymore, as I found out yesterday when I had the privilege of spending half a day in the hospital yesterday due to another kidney stone attack and I just don’t recover as quickly as I used to, ditto for driving endurance in vehicles that do not offer a smooth ride.

I’ve always loved that color of blue and wished it was even more available than it is. Don’t see it much anymore, nor do I see these little VW pickups anymore either but on occasion here in Seattle, one is till tooling down the road.

Even rarer are the Dodge Rampage truck based versions of the Omni and a couple of years ago, saw a mint red one with I believe a white canopy parked at a parking lot across the street from the place where I buy cheese and pasta and dried herbs in bulk in the SODO district of Seattle.

Some people we once knew at church had I think an ’82 version of this little truck, it was dark brown though and my schoolmate Russ drove it on an EYC (Episcopal Young Churchmen) outing to our leader’s campsite for a weekend in I think 82 or 83.

Bill and Theresa the leaders at the time had bought a time share at a campground if I recall right and essentially, it was a campground where you could pitch a trailer or tents, as was our case on a site and had the use of the clubhouse (not fancy) and the pool, which was partly indoors and partly outdoors and had a sauna and shower rooms. They were there as were additional adult chaperones from church, hence the SAAB mentioned.

My first two cars were both 1984 Rabbit diesels, first a 2-door with 4-speed, then a 4-door with the 5-speed. Owned the first for almost 5 years and loved it. Owned the second one for a year and hated it. It had endless mechanical trouble, mostly caused by hamfisted mechanics that didn’t know enough about the engine (much like your friend that replaced the headgasket). Its only redeeming quality over my first Rabbit was the 5-speed.

I am also 6’3″ with a largish build. A friend once confided to me that it reminded them of a clown car when I got out of my Rabbit. These cars certainly had “inner bigness” though. One downside to the 4-door was the short doors — the B-pillar was in the way so I couldn’t rest my arm on the windowsill. Looks like the pickup version used the shorter doors from the 4-door, which would be a turn-off for me.

Yes, I think the VW pickups would have both worked better and looked better if they’d made the cab longer, used 2-door doors, and made the box a tad shorter. I’m 6′ 2″ and found I couldn’t move the seat back far enough in one.

Here in the UK, VW made these mk1 pickups up until the 1990s, still with round headlamps and given the dorky name of ‘caddy’- NOT as in ‘Jeeves bring the Caddy around for Sir Blumpington,’ but rather ‘put the recycling into the plastic caddy under the sink.’
However, an even cooler VW pickup creation came later. In the 1990s, VW purchased ex-commiecar Skoda, and tasked them with building the new pickup, off of the Felicia floorpan to replace the 1974 vintage caddy. Now, the Skoda Felicia is about as close to a Mk1 Golf as you can get. However, Skoda looked at VW who were building the Corrado, GTIs and other cool cars, and other VW stablemate Seat, who were building the sporty cheap cars, and thought it was entirely unfair that they could only build boring cars and trucks for doddery old people. So what did they do? They took the Felicia pickup made a polished wood bed, and having looked at the Subaru Brat and thinking this was a good idea, made the rear bulkhead able to go backwards in order to have two little jump seats. Obviously when the rear was back far enough to use the rear seats, the rear passengers had their heads out in the rain. And dare I say the Oregon coast is a desert compared to the UK.
For good measure, and to prevent mold (see above) the entire interior was done in a wetsuit dayglo neoprene type material. Most people looked and laughed, but for people who loved the old VW pickups, (and in the UK there’s quite a scene of people who like making GTI pickups) the Felicia fun is the holy grail.

I think the only colour they came in is a dayglo yellow. I really want one, although it makes about as much sense as a chocolate frypan.

My Uncle bought one of these nearly new in 1982 or so, I’m pretty sure it’s an ’81. He drove it for years, and was always being asked if it was for sale. He was a mechanic, so he did all the work himself, and whenever it started getting rust, he’d fix and repaint it. I remember riding in it when I was really little. It is metallic copper with saddle tan interior, diesel and the 4-speed. When he passed away it was parked with 390,000 miles. It has been living in the garage with my Aunt’s retired 1986 Park Avenue. It is still pretty nice, but doesn’t start. My cousin’s husband, who is a big VW fan, heard about it a couple months ago, and was interested in it because he drives 20 miles to work and wanted a commuter car. Well he is 6’2 and had a problem fitting in it, but still really liked it. There are still a few running around here. I saw a pretty clean silver one in East Moline a couple weeks ago.

Ask much of the rest of the world, where fwd pickups are quite common. That goes for vans too: the Ford Transit is available in fwd or rwd versions.
In paved/urban situations, the reduction of traction is generally not really so much of an issue, especially with modern traction control, etc.

Now pulling heavy trailers is a bit of another story…And good luck convincing Americans that fwd trucks would work fine 99% of the time.

Sadly – I think, sadly, anyway – truck purchases in the States are most often driven by emotional needs, not transportation needs. Several things came together in the early 1970s, that made the full-size pickup an icon: The back-to-nature movement, which all but demanded you live in a log cabin in the mountains, at least 50 miles from pavement; the CB radio craze and the romanticizing of long-haul truckers; the shrinking American car, demanded by government (CAFE) without even a single consult with buyers; and of course their inherent usefulness.

All of these, except the last, work against mini-pickups and unconventional pickup trucks. What do the VW, the Champ, the Japanese standard minitruck, the El Camino and Ranchero and Rampage all have in common? They’re deviations from the required theme…a pickup must sit high; must have a V8; must be body-on-frame and with running boards or nerf bars. Paint must be LOUD; and garish graphics are a plus. And, of course, the option list must be long…auto, air, power everything…

It’s kinda pathetic, actually. I love trucks, but I love their USEFULNESS. Had the VW proven to have more long-term endurance than it did, I’d be looking for one now. And I DID have a PL620, and when it rotted away, there wasn’t a reasonable replacement. I’d consider an F150 or a C-20…but only under certain conditions. Rubber floor mat, manual, six cylinders.

But I’d pine for an economical truck that combined the fuel-savings of a FWD car with the utility of a big box out back.

I have a steep icy driveway and reversing up does not work in my fiance’s manual trans Vibe. Keeping the momentum and staying in 2nd gear however does work. Filling up my pickup’s flatbed with snow works too.

pfsm

Posted October 31, 2011 at 11:46 AM

That’s what I did when I had a pickup that lived outside – shoveled the snow off the driveway into the pickup box. Voila, clear driveway, extra weight for traction in the pickup, and I didn’t have to unload the truck, just let the snow melt. OK for western WA, but maybe not so good in colder areas.

In practice however, you’d probably feel much better about hauling 1000lb in your F-100 than in one of these, unless they use larger brakes and different gearing than the regular Rabbit.

There were many occasions when I had 4 people in my Rabbit, with a combined weight of about 800 lb. Once or twice, I actually crammed 3 across the back seat so there were 5 of us. Along with our stuff in the back, I’m sure I hauled 1000lb on occasion. Acceleration was non-existent (going uphill was painful), the handling was interesting, and braking distance seemed like it was doubled versus having just myself in the car.

I havent seen one of these which seems odd NZ has imported either new or used nearly anything in wheels thats powered. Mind you when I spotted an old inter on a lawn the other day one name in particular sprang to mind.

There’s one in Hamilton Bryce, a beautiful baby-blue ’82 model. No idea what the engine is, but the body is immaculate. It used to be in the Pak N Save carpark most weeks, but I never found out who owned it – though I’m assuming it may belong to one of the independent VW specialists.

The last time I saw one of these was one “rode hard and put up wet”. It still nabbed an unreasonable amount of money for a non-runner. “VW people” logic always escaped me.
I’d like a write up on the M886.